Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative: Toby Sisson

The Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative (CMAI) expands the Worcester Art Museum's ongoing commitment to the vibrant art community throughout the region. Launched in December 2017, CMAI showcases the extraordinary and multi-faceted talents of artists who live or work in the greater Worcester region with a solo installation in the Sidney and Rosalie Rose Gallery. Each year two artists, invited by one of the Museum's curators, will display a small grouping of works alongside significant contemporary artists, including Willie Cole, Doris Salcedo and Alice Neel.

American | naciremA is a metaphorical mirror — a reversed and fractured image of America across the racial divide. Artist Toby Sisson created this text-based work to explore ideas about 'the other' and author W.E.B. DuBois' concept of Double Consciousness, in which black Americans see themselves reflected in, yet distorted and diminished by the dominant culture. American | naciremA challenges the conventional perspective of a unified nationality.

The artist notes, “When I was young, my father was a member of the Nacirema Club in my Midwestern hometown. The 'Nac' was one of a network of black social clubs throughout the country that served our communities when many private clubs did not welcome non-white members. The reversal of the word 'American' into 'Nacirema' was intentionally political, undermining the status quo.”

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.